Crew Cuts: Eintracht Frankfurt to play Crew at Mapfre Stadium in July

Frankfurt will take on the Seattle Sounders in a July 8 international friendly, followed by the San Jose Earthquakes on July 14 and Columbus Crew SC on July 17.

Andrew Erickson The Columbus Dispatch @AEricksonCD

Eintracht Frankfurt is like many acts touring during the summer. It wants to bring in a little revenue, continue to build its following and maybe get a little practice in along the way.

On Wednesday, the Bundesliga club announced a three-city American tour that includes Columbus. Frankfurt will take on the Seattle Sounders in a July 8 international friendly, followed by the San Jose Earthquakes on July 14 and Columbus Crew SC on July 17.

Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. at Mapfre Stadium. The friendly will be the Crew’s 21st all-time against an international opponent. Crew SC is 11-6-3 in 20 international friendly matches to this point.

Eintracht sits third in the Bundesliga table, which means even if the Crew faces a reserve-heavy lineup in the exhibition, it’s likely to be a decent test.

“I think it’s great, honestly. It’s a big club in Germany. They’re having a good year and it’ll be good for us,” Crew coach and sporting director Gregg Berhalter said Wednesday. “It’s another measuring stick. Any time you get to play against international competition, you can see where you are and how you stack up. So for us, we’re looking forward to it.”

The friendly is scheduled 13 days after a two-games-in-four-days stretch for the Crew, and five days before a home match against the Philadelphia Union.

Berhalter agreed the match is an opportunity to keep players sharp amid a break and allow some players a chance to earn extra game time, but said there are additional motivations at play.

“I think also it’s for the fans. For our fans to get to see us against international competition and for them to kind of imagine ‘if we were in this league, what would it look like?’ That’s, I think, a great exercise,” Berhalter said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to play in a lot of these exhibitions and they’re fun games, so I hope our guys enjoy it, I hope their team enjoys it and the fans enjoy it.”

Let’s hope, for the sake of travel costs, the Crew holds off on becoming a Bundesliga expansion club.

Asked if he leverages his contacts abroad to find suitable exhibition opponents for the Crew, Berhalter said it’s usually the other way around.

“(President of Business Operations) Andy (Loughnane), we get contacted all the time about potential games and then it’s a schedule thing,” Berhalter said. “We’re finalizing the terms of the deal and everything and that’s where Andy handles it and I think he did a great job securing this game.”

Individual tickets for the match officially go on sale Thursday at 2 p.m. The match has been designated as “Special Match A” for Crew season ticket holders.

Minute details

Berhalter further detailed his plans for playing time during the Carolina Challenge Cup, indicating starters will see their workload increase slightly against Atlanta United on Saturday.

“It’s by feel,” Berhalter said in response to a question about possible minutes caps. “We want to push them more than we have in the past, so we’ll probably get 70 or more. We’ll be pushing the minutes.”

An unofficial scrimmage against Coastal Carolina on Saturday gives more players an opportunity to see field time, and Berhalter didn’t rule out mixing up lineups as the team progresses to its second scrimmage against Charleston next Wednesday.

“I think we’ll mix it up a little bit. We’ll get a bunch of different looks in this camp and then, you know, by the end of camp, moving into the week before Chicago, we’ll have an idea of where we’re going to be at and who’s going to start that game,” he said. “I think as a player, it helps the players to have that security and to know that they’re going to play in the games. We’ll come to a conclusion…after this Charleston trip.”

The lineup against the Seattle Sounders next Saturday will likely be similar to the one Berhalter will roll out against Chicago on March 4.

Charleston trip workload

Berhalter said Tuesday he thinks his players will be match-ready, conditioning-wise, by opening day. That does not necessarily mean his players will be worked as hard as they were during the Brazil trip, which consisted of two-a-days nearly every day.

“We’ll keep pushing hard. We’ll go two-a-days sometimes,” he said. “Our focus is not to win the Charleston tournament, it’s to get the guys ready to win (against) Chicago.”

Assessing his fitness near the end of his first preseason with Crew SC, defender Nicolai Naess said he doesn’t feel he needs to ease into increased minutes.

“I feel ready now, actually. We had some tough training sessions. We had a tough camp in Brazil, but now I feel my body’s great and I feel I’m ready to play,” Naess said. “I want to test my body and see if I can play 90 minutes, but I think I can.”

Captain to be determined

Someone will likely have to wear a captain’s armband for Crew SC’s three matches in the Carolina Challenge Cup, but it won’t mean much. Not yet.

Berhalter reiterated Wednesday he has not made a decision on his new team captain and probably won’t until the days leading up to his team’s March 4 home opener.

“Ideally I’d like to have a captain solidified in the week leading up to Chicago,” he said. “We’re observing still in this phase and there’s no rush on that.”

The Crew is likely to get a first-hand look at its former captain, Atlanta United’s Michael Parkhurst, on Saturday.

Quotable

“I was joking with everybody that it’s just going to be good to go down there and kick someone else. We’ve been kicking each other for the past two, three weeks here, so it’s always good to see where we’re at against other MLS teams, mentally and physically.”

-Defender Josh Williams, on heading to Charleston

Stoppage time

Congratulations to Gaston Sauro and his wife, Ayelen, on the birth of their son, Dante. It was a pretty good Valentine’s Day for the 26-year-old defender.

@AEricksonCD

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